The Presidency

By Hugh Sidey

George Bush's White House will be a little gray when he gets there. The thick paint has been dissolved and washed away, and bare sandstone walls are visible for the first time since 1817. But that will be a minor inconvenience for the new occupant of the grandest working home in the U.S. "It has never been in better shape," says Chief Usher Gary Walters, whose staff of 93 chases the dust tracked in by a million and a half tourists a year. The thought is echoed by curator Rex Scouten, who presides over the 38,000 pieces of art, furniture and tableware in the White House collection.

The White House complex actually embraces the main mansion, Blair House for guests and the Old and New Executive Office Buildings. In rare harmony, the Administration and Congress have poured in at least $50 million over eight years to redo and upgrade the buildings. Private donors have added $12 million in cash and gifts. Not included in those totals are the Secret Service operations, the limousines run by the Army, the White House "airline" of Marine helicopters and Air Force One plus backup. The Huey helicopters will soon be replaced by a faster, sleeker model. The Boeing 707s will be upgraded to 747s for the staggering price of $391 million. Aloft, Bush may be safer and more comfortable than in his White House living room.

Officially the White House is authorized to have 323 permanent employees. But the Brookings Institution's Bradley Patterson thumbed through recent records and concluded that 3,366 people are assigned there in one capacity or another, most on loan from other federal departments -- a venerable fudge practiced by all modern Presidents.

Is all this worth such an indulgence of our wealth? Virtually no one argues -- not the tourists, not Congress and certainly not the Reagans. They have probably done more than any other First Couple to make the house reflect America's heritage, from Charles Russell's vivid Western scenes to the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington, the first painting put in the new White House in 1800 and the only one saved when the British burned the place in 1814.

In effect, the White House has become a small but complete city. Gardener Irvin Williams reports that a new lawn weathered the hot spell and is flourishing. Wood ducks are in the trees, mallards on the fountain pond, 40 or so other species of birds round about. Squirrels, lured by Reagan's generous dispensation of acorns, are too numerous to count.

There is a marvelous mystery that Scouten is nurturing for the White House bicentennial celebration. Only one eyewitness account exists of the laying of the cornerstone on Oct. 13, 1792. An unknown Philadelphian related in a letter that the Freemasons had paraded from Georgetown to the site, placed a plaque between two stones, then returned to "Mr. Suter's Fountain Inn, where an elegant dinner was provided," followed by 16 toasts. The celebrators understandably forgot to record where the cornerstone and plaque were laid.

In 1946 a mine detector picked up a signal between two stones at the southwest corner. Harry Truman ruled against disturbing the ghost. Two years ago, Scouten tried a radar device and got an image in the same place. Among other decisions for George Bush will be whether to lift out that fragment of history and raise a few more glasses to the grand old home.